To ensure India will have adequate energy and water supplies in the future...
The first step is to predict where India's population will level off. Assume India's population is going to peak at around 1.3 billion people. This may be somewhat underestimating reality, but everything that follows can be proportionately increased based on higher population projections.
Next, determine how many units of energy (expressed in millions of BTUs per year), and how many cubic meters of water per year, on average, are required to sustain the lifestyle for a citizen of a fully industrialized nation. Currently, on average, each Indian citizen consumes 25 million BTUs of energy per year and consumes not quite 500 cubic meters of water. In the European Union, which provides a useful comparison, the average energy consumption is well over 150 million BTUs per citizen per year, and just over 500 cubic meters of water.
It would take 3.8 gigawatts of electricity (representing about 2.7% of India's estimated 2005 electrical generating capacity of about 140 gigawatts), running constantly, to pump water 250 meters uphill at a volume of 38 cubic kilometers per year. Put another way, a 250 meter lift will require about 100 megawatt-years for each cubic kilometer pumped. About the Author: Ed "Redwood" Ring is the Editor of EcoWorld, reporting on clean technology and the status of species and ecosystems. This story was originally published in the January-March 2007 issue of "TerraGreen" Magazine, published by the Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi, India (www.teriin.org). In his spare time, Mr. Ring grows and gives away trees, especially his beloved Redwoods. |
No comments:
Post a Comment